


Sleeper's Gain

by rindofatangerine



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, but youll get over it, i guess its a little traumatizing, uhhh a bit of fluff i guess, you came here to get hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:54:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23573458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rindofatangerine/pseuds/rindofatangerine
Summary: Tony Stark is enjoying a beautiful morning outside the cabin when Peter comes to join him. Only it seems Peter might have a secret to share, and Tony isn’t leaving until Peter confesses what’s on his mind.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 86





	Sleeper's Gain

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this instead of sleeping ahhhhhh
> 
> This is the first fic I have posted in a very, very long time so I would greatly appreciate feedback! I could use some encouragement to work on and post some of my longer fics that have been sitting on the backburner. Also, now that I'm publishing again, I'd really like to grow as a writer.
> 
> Anyway, please enjoy this short little one shot!

The sun rose above the lake, Apollo’s chariot hefting it across the skyline to reveal cerulean blue and a sunlit porch. Tony’s eyes closed for a moment as he savored its warmth. The rich smell of damp wood and the chirping of songbirds flooded his senses.

Faintly, he heard the door to the front porch open. Opening his eyes, he saw Peter climbing on top of the banister, agile and youthful. Tony’s knees hadn’t worked like that in years, and his feet had certainly never had the same sticky ability the kid used.

“You’re up early, bud,” Tony said. His kid cracked a smile and dropped one foot to hang off the edge. He hugged the other tightly to his body.

“I guess you could say that,” he murmured, not turning to look at Tony. He ran a hand through his brown curls, and then began tapping a rhythm on the banister.

“Something on your mind?” Tony questioned, pulling his bathrobe tighter around himself. It was only just this side of chilly. Just a very slight wind that rippled the surface of the water and tugged the strands of grass heavenward. Funny, he could have sworn the morning had been warm.

“Guess you could say that too,” Peter said after a long pause. He was still in his pajamas, but he was wearing Tony’s old MIT sweatshirt. It was several sizes too big on him.

“Not up to talking this morning, huh?” That was okay. Even if Peter had had a bad nightmare, the day was so peaceful. Tony was sure that it would evaporate like dewdrops in the scorch of the sun.

Peter picked at the railing. Dirt clogged underneath his fingernails as he flicked little wooden pieces into the yard. Tony watched in silence. Pepper would’ve reprimanded him, but Tony often found that the best way to get Peter to talk was to give him something to do with his hands.

“I actually came here to talk,” the kid finally confessed, now rolling bits of wood on the banister. They scraped softly, and Tony distantly hoped that he wasn’t getting splinters. “It’s so peaceful though. I don’t want to break the spell. You seem happy.”

“I’ll be happier if you tell me what’s going on,” Tony said, turning fully to face him. “C’mon, spit it out, bud. Bad nightmare? Argument with Pepper? Getting annoyed by Morgan? They can be a bit much sometimes, I know, but I think those things come with the territory of family.” 

Peter shook his head, curls gently moving with the motion and the breeze.

“No, Mr. Stark,” he said. “I came here to… tell you something. It’s important.” And for the first time that morning, Peter turned his head slightly to look at him. A sense of wrongness crept into his awareness. Something was off; something wasn’t quite right. Camera shutters blinked for him instead of eyelids, sharp and black and startling. There was something in Peter’s face. He couldn’t identify it, but maybe it was his expression. Or something in his deep brown eyes.

“Pete? You’re scaring me,” he said, beginning to feel the sun’s warmth fade as it passed behind a cloud. “Is this- are you-“

“Hey,” Peter said softly, breaking eye contact. “Look. Look at the water. Look at how calmly the edges lap at the shore. Look at the trees. They’re so green and lush. And the birds? Can’t you hear them singing? It’s such a peaceful morning.” Unusually, Peter made no move to touch him, but it barely registered in Tony’s mind as he gazed over the landscape once again.

“You’re right,” he said, slightly hoarse. “And… the fish? Do you see that fish? It’s mouthing at the surface. It’s just a few feet away from the cattails.”

“I see it,” Peter confirmed. He swung his leg as they waited in silence for another moment. The fish dipped back below the surface of the lake. “Mr. Stark, this morning is so peaceful. I still need to tell you something, but it is a gorgeous morning.”

“It really is,” Tony agreed, tearing his eyes away from the lake to look at Peter. “You can tell me anything, though, buddy. You know that.”

“I do know that. I really do.”

Tony wondered, faintly, if Pepper was up yet. He wondered if she was cooking breakfast. The woman had found a real knack for omelets, and, thinking he might smell one, he began to turn towards the door.

“Don’t!” A hand shot out to grab him. Tony couldn’t feel it through his thick robe, but he felt the force holding him there. “Mr. Stark, wait. Don’t go. Stay here, please. Promise you won’t leave until I’ve told you?”

Tony relaxed, gazing at the boy that felt like his son. “Of course. I’ll wait all morning, if that’s what you’d like.”

Peter nodded and casted his eyes downward. He rested his forehead on his knee for a moment before looking out determinedly. Tony thought he saw tears running down his cheeks, but with the brightening sun, he couldn’t be sure.

“I have to tell you an answer,” Peter said confidently.

Tony laughed slightly. “An answer? Okay… not usually how these things work.”

But Peter gazed stubbornly outward, his jaw set. “I can’t tell you the question. You don’t know it now, but you’ll learn what the question is. I can only tell you what the answer is. But you have to promise to remember.”

Tony began to feel strange. Almost like he was floating and falling at the same time. Like he was sinking while simultaneously coming up for a breath of air. “Peter, I don’t-“

“Promise me!” Peter glanced nervously at the sky. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

He was right, Tony realized with a bizarre feeling. The sun was already beginning to set. How did that happen? It was growing cold. He wanted to be inside, tucking Morgan in.

“Okay, Pete. I promise. Tell me the answer.”

“The answer is that it’s inverted,” Peter said, eyes darting, frightened. “Just like my internship certificate in our picture. You know the one? The one you put in the kitchen behind the dishes because you couldn’t bear to put it away, but you couldn’t bear to look at all the time either.”

Tony’s mouth felt dry. “Kid, what-“

“You have to remember that! Because there will come a time when you’ll have the question, and you need to know the answer. More than anything in the world, than anything you’ve ever done in your whole life, you need to know that answer. It’s inverted. Can you remember?”

“It’s… inverted?” Tony said incredulously. “Kid, that doesn’t make any sense. What does that mean? What exactly is inverted?”

“I can’t tell you!” Peter exclaimed, fisting at his hair. “I barely know the question, I can’t always remember, everything is so scrambled…”

Night was quickly descending, washing the edges of everything pitch-black. Tony realized belatedly that the porch light was on. It was the only reason why he could see Peter at all. But… he couldn’t see all of Peter, he thought, suddenly apprehensive. Just the side facing him. And none of his leg that was dangling over the railing. Slowly, trepidation rising, he wondered if that was all he could see because... maybe that was all that was there.

“Peter, are you made of dust?” Tony questioned, feeling the world move in and out of focus. The question came out much smoother than he was expecting, but felt like lead on his tongue. Waves crashed at the shore as thunder shook the house.

At last, Peter turned fully to face him.

“I’ve been dust for a long time, Mr. Stark,” he said. Tony gazed openly in horror at the half of Peter’s body that was still present. His skull was crumbling outwards into ash from the side. He only had one leg, and his torso was completely torn open, innards spilling out the side before they crumbled into nothingness.

Tony screamed.

He came to soaked in sweat, bile rising in his throat. He quickly sat up, rubbing his hands across his face like he could physically pull the dream out of his head.

“Tony… what-“

“Pepper,” he said hoarsely, not turning to face her. “It’s nothing, honey. Go back to sleep.”

But he could hear her shifting in the darkness to sit upright. He glanced at the nightside and saw that it was 3:28 in the morning.

“Bad dream?” she whispered, rubbing his shoulder.

“Yeah,” he admitted, voice cracking slightly. “It’s nothing, really, just a little more… vivid than usual. I guess. And.. hard. I was with… well, you know.”

“Peter?”

He jolted, because hearing the kid’s name always made him feel melancholy, but tonight felt like getting poked with a cattle prod.

“Yeah, I was with the kid.” Now Tony frowned, finding that the details of the dream had slipped through his fingers like sand. He felt like it might be important to say it aloud, like maybe the dream had been important. “We were… here, I think. In the cabin. Like he hadn’t- like nothing happened. And he told me something? I think? Was it important? Did I need to remember it?”

Pepper’s hands slowly pried Tony’s hands out from his hair. He hadn’t even realized he’d been pulling on it.

“You don’t need to remember anything,” she soothed him. “It was a dream. And Tony, it’s so early… let’s go back to sleep.”

“I think it might have been important,” he insisted, unable to quite get rid of the idea. “He must have been there for a reason, right?” 

“Sure,” Pepper agreed, and Tony felt his heart skip a beat. “It means you miss him. That’s normal, Tony. It’s grief. You’re not being sent a message from the… great beyond or anything. Lie back down with me?”

He allowed her to pull him back down. They curled up facing each other. 

“I think he mentioned the picture we have in the kitchen,” Tony said, voice low.

Pepper hummed. “The kitchen could use some dusting tomorrow, when you get the chance.”

It didn’t take her long to fall asleep, but Tony stayed up all night staring at the ceiling and trying to remember his dream. He wasn’t trying to remember what had happened. But he was trying to remember what it had felt like to have Peter at the cabin, included in their little family of three.

Later, maybe years or days later, Tony learned the question. He couldn’t remember the answer. Although dreams thin the veil between worlds, they just thicken that much more once you awaken. He never did remember the dream, but that was okay, because Peter didn’t either, if he’d ever known about in the first place. It faded into obscurity, as most dreams do. Although, it was that picture with the upside-down Stark Industries certificate that caused him to test the inverted mobius strip.

Either way, Tony Stark still figured out time travel for his son.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y'all read the tags before you read the story because otherwise rip. Hope you weren't expecting some nice father-son bonding.
> 
> As far as interpretation of this story goes, I really think you can stretch it in many different directions. I'm purposefully unclear about the timeline (although obviously it's during the five year period). Is it really Peter, communicating from beyond with grave with knowledge of the future? Is it a really weird coincidence that Tony's subconsious dreamed up? Did he use this dream as a conduit to figure out time travel with nothing spiritual behind it? Who knows.
> 
> Thanks for reading and please leave kudos and/or comments!


End file.
